“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13)
You can’t teach a 1 month old infant advanced calculus or microbiology.
As a father I must teach my children in accordance with what they are ready for, but challenging their young minds to push them on to learn more. Well, that’s exactly what our Heavenly Father has done. Some would say, “Why couldn’t He just start with Christ? Did God not know that Adam and Eve would fall from grace? Why did God start with one covenant with man in the Old Testament and then change the covenant in the New Testament? Did He have to come up with a new plan? No! That is a very humanistic way of looking at God and His plan. God had a flawless plan from the beginning.
A father must teach his children in accordance with what they are ready for. God started teaching from the beginning as he walked and talked with Adam in the garden. God then allowed people to govern themselves as individuals. Those that followed their own thoughts, ideas and rules became utterly depraved and those that chose to follow God’s leadership were righteous and one of their dependents was instructed to build an ark. All but 8 people were destroyed by a global flood because of human iniquity.
God taught us that sacrifices cover sin. The first sacrifice was in the Garden of Eden when an animal had to die to cover the sin of Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God. After the flood, animal sacrifices were used to cover sin. That led to monetary and punitive sacrifices to cover sin, such as repayment or restitution and jail or prison time. This practice is still being used today, but now our laws that were based on Biblical principles are being altered, ignored or changed to satisfy the ever increasing deviant nature of mankind. All of these lessons from God prepared us for Jesus’ perfect sacrifice that redeemed all sin, past, present and future for every human that has ever existed or will ever exist.
God started with the Law in the Old Testament to teach us right from wrong. In it he taught us that it can’t be done. We cannot remain obedient to the law because of our nature and as the laws themselves are corrupted to accommodate sin, we push ourselves farther and farther away from God. He sent His Son to die for us once we knew right from wrong and knew that we couldn’t please God through our obedience to laws. We are under grace now through our faith in Jesus and His perfect sacrifice. God took the time to teach us that our own works, compliance, sacrifices and service were nothing – our righteousness is as filthy rags. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6) God was teaching us that we can only be saved by God’s grace. Nothing else will do and no works by us will ever be enough to give us leave to enter Heaven. God’s grace (undeserved favor and mercy) is the only way.
The new covenant through Christ is the propitiation and fulfillment of the Law. Our Father God taught us through the Old Testament, so that we would be prepared for His new covenant in the New Testament. It is the covenant that cannot be broken and will not fail, the covenant that is preparing Christians for what comes next; the covenant that prepares us for service in Heaven that will prepare us for service and leadership during the Millennial Reign and then finally, life with God on the New Earth. “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” (Isaiah 65:17) “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away…” (Revelation 21:1) God’s been patiently teaching us as a loving Father God over the past few thousand years, chastising us as necessary to lovingly discipline us in the ways of truth and righteousness.
God, our flawless Heavenly Father has known from before the beginning of the universe exactly what needed to be done. He has already led us through most of this portion of our journey and as Christians we gladly await the Rapture of the church and the next leg of our journey.